


The Stem of All Evil

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: The Arms of Voltron [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Gen, stress for poor Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-29 22:46:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10863651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: Uh-oh, my Keith is stressed by schoolwork from the Stem course. Takeshi Shirogane has gone into space and Keith is pressed into more than he can handle. Luckily Katie Holt is there to help him. and he helps her right back.





	The Stem of All Evil

"Math is stupid!" Keith threw down his Algebra book. "Why does it have to be so... Rrrgh!" He ran his fingers through his hair. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why had he thought he could take two math courses at once? He wasn't good at math! How was he supposed to juggle algebra 2  _and_ Calculus as well as all his other classes? He had barely passed Geometry! He never should have taken the Stem course. He never should have let the counselor talk him into it. He banged his head on the wall.

"Um... Are you okay?"

Oh. His mechanic. Great. The girl was fine, but she always wanted to help, when he  _didn't need any help_.  He didn't need anyone. "I'm fine!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Stop trying to help me! I don't need anyone's help, and I certainly don't need yours!"

She flinched, and he immediately felt bad. But he couldn't apologize. It would sound fake. "I've got homework to do. Go away, you're distracting me."

She left without a word. Keith's guilt grew, but he didn't react. She'd forgive him. That was how she was. He turned back to his algebra. He could do this.

 

 

He couldn't  do this. Stupid quadratics. Stupid math. His brain couldn't focus, and he still had English, Physics and Economics class homework. He was worthless at this. Stupid. Just. Needed. To.  _Focus_. 

"Hey, I heard you needed some help with math."

What? Who was this girl?

"My name is Katie Holt. Leah, your mechanic, sent me."

Holt... Where had he heard that name before? Oh, yeah. Shiro's flight group. So she had lost someone to the mission as well. But wait... She was younger than him!

"Aren't you a little young for this kind of math?"

"No."

"I don't need help."

Katie Holt crossed the room without asking, peering at his homework. "Yeah, well, all of those solutions are wrong, so I'd say you do."

"I'm  _fine_!" He wasn't fine. "Get out of my room!"

She held up her hands peaceably. "Okay. Just saying. Here's my number if you need me." She set down a sticky note and left. Keith put his head on his desk. He would never get this.

 

 

"F. Kogane, you failed."

Keith avoided his teacher's eyes.

"Did you even try."

"Yes. I did."

"It doesn't look like it."

"Well, I did, Sir."

Mrs. Leon glared at him. "That would be a ma'am."

Keith closed his eyes. He'd been up all night trying to figure this out. "I'm sorry, ma'am."

"Kogane, I'm disappointed in you."

Ah. There it was. the D word. Something Shiro had never said. Something his dad had never said.

"If you can't handle this, maybe you shouldn't be here."

Keith sighed. "I'm trying, ma'am."

"Try harder."

"Yes ma'am" The teacher moved away. Keith could feel his face burn as his classmates snickered. It didn't help that Leah's gaze was both sympathetic and accusing.

 

 

"Leah, we've got a gas leak, please fix it."

"What percent are we losing gas at?"

"What? I don't know, just fix it."

"Maybe you'd know if you'd let Katie help you!"

"Are we really doing this right now?"

"Yes!"

"Uh guys," interrupted their communication's officer, a guy named Joe, "Maybe we could talk about this later?"

"Thank you, Joe. Leah, go fix that tank."

Leah crossed her arms. "No. not until you talk to me."

"Seriously? We're going to crash and you're trying to  _talk_?!"

"Yes! You need to let me help you!"

"I don't  _need_ to do anything! But  _you_ need to fix that tank, or we're history!"

 _Fuel systems failing_ the computer remarked calmly  _please fix soon_.

"See? Even the computer agrees with me! Go fix it!"

"I swear, you  _never_ pay attention! It's like you're ADD or something!"

"Took you long enough to figure it out. Now  _fix it_!"

_Fuel tank has been destroyed. Please take immediate action._

"Great, we're past the point of no return. Good job, Leah. Now be quiet." Keith took hold of the controls and steered the ship down towards the Earth's surface. "Come on, come on, come on," he muttered, putting more pressure on the throttle, trying to make the most of his fuel. "You can make it, come on!" There was a bleeping in his ear as the red warning lights started to flash. "I know, I know, too much atmospheric pressure, going to burn up. Leah, maybe you should've checked our heat shields!"

"Too late."

"What?"

Leah pointed. Sure enough, the heat and fire was speeding up, reaching towards the gas tank. "You're too late."

_Simulation failed._

"Alright, cadets." Iverson stuck his head in the door. "Anyone care to tell me what just happened?"

"Sir-"

"Don't  _sir_ me, Garza." Leah flinched. "If you and Kogane are having _relationship_ _issues_ , you take them outside of the simulators. You don't screw up your whole test."

There were snickers with the word _relationship_ and a couple of wolf-whistles back where Iverson couldn't see. Keith turned bright red.

"Smith is the only one who didn't screw up, because he didn't have a chance to!"

"Commander, I-"

"Kogane," Iverson growled, right up in Keith's face, "I've heard you aren't doing to well in your other classes. I already knew you weren't a genius, you're barely average, and you don't follow orders well. But I was willing to over look those things for _that_." He pointed at the simulator. "And then that abomination happened. Keep screwing up and you're out in the street. I won't tell you again."

 

 

"Argh!" Keith threw his math book at a wall. There was no way. absolutely no way he could do this. Stupid Iverson. Stupid Stem course. His Physics, Economics and English book followed his Calculus and Algebra book. He collapsed into his desk chair, head in hands. What was he going to do?

 

"Kogane! Pay attention!"

Keith snapped up in his desk, out of the light doze he'd slipped into. "Sorry sir- I mean ma'am, I meant ma'am!"

"Kogane! Do you ever wonder why you're failing? It's probably because you are falling asleep in class!"

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't good enough! If your behavior doesn't improve, I swear I  _will_ see you out!"

"Yes ma'am"

 

"Hey, _cowboy._ "

Oh. great. One of his classmates who had an I.Q. of probably negative ten. Keith had no idea how he'd gotten in, but he got the feeling that it had been of his stupid rich parents.

"I'm talking to you cowboy. Are all Texans this stupid?"

"Go away."

"Aw, does Kogane want to cry? Does he miss his horse? Is he sad that his girlfriend broke up with him?"

"Shut up and get get out of here."

"And what're you going to do?" 

Keith ignored him and kept walking.

"Hey, I said, whatcha going to do?"

"Keith doesn't speak idiot. Try again with more intelligence." Leah slipped her hand into Keith's. "Oh, I forgot. Idiot is the highest intelligence level you speak. Whoops."

"Garza, I'm going to..."

"Going to what?" Leah nodded at the teachers in the hall. "Choose your next words very carefully."

The idiot looked around and then slunk off, defeated.

Leah turned to Keith, confident air dissipating as she released his hand. "I... I'm sorry!"

"What? What are  _you_ sorry for?"

"I... I was so mean! I sent Katie, even though you didn't want any help, and I didn't notice that you're ADD, and if you get kicked out, it'll be my fault because I made us fail the flight simulator, and... and..."

"Leah..."

"Don't say anything. If you hate me, I deserve it."

"Leah, don't apologize for something somebody should have done a long time ago."

"What?"

"Honestly? The last time someone forced help on me, it was Shiro. And I'm just not... I don't like depending on people."

"Why not? You have to depend on _someone_."

"Because if you depend on someone, they'll let you down."

"Keith, that's not true."

"Yes it is. You can only depend on yourself."

"Keith, why..."

Keith clenched his fists, trying not to let tears fall. "I've depended on two people in my life. And they're both gone. One's dead, and the other one is in space. The ones you depend on will  _always_ disappoint you.  it's a fact of the universe." He ran away, away from her sympathetic eyes, away from her desire to help him, away from caring about someone again.

 

 

Keith slumped in his chair. He might as well give up. There was no way he could handle this. He was going to fail, get kicked out and never be a pilot. 

 _You have to depend on_ someone.

Something caught his eye. Kaite's number. Hadn't he thrown that away? He reached towards it, before hesitating.

 _You have to depend on_ someone.

Why not?

Because she was younger than him, it was a little humiliating, and he was trying to do this by himself.

But then again, he wasn't doing to great, and if she could help him... He took in a deep breath and texted the number.

 

 

Katie looked up from her computer as she heard a little beep from her phone. She picked it up. Unknown text.

 _Hi. Keith Kogane here. Could you help me please?_ She smiled.

 

"Nice boxers."

"Please don't."

"Sorry. So... velocity, time, distance... alright. Let's do this.

 

Katie explained it for an hour, and Keith still didn't really get it. She huffed with impatience and picked up a little rocket ship that Shiro had given him before he left.

"Okay. If I were to drop this from my height , and you wanted to catch it when it was an inch above the ground, which I'd say would take about, oh, 3 seconds, and you're moving at about half a foot a second from your distance of a foot, how long would you have to wait to dive and catch it?"

"I don't know... one second?"

"Wrong." Katie dropped the statue, Keith jumping to catch it. He got up, glaring.

"What is wrong with you?"

Katie looked at her stopwatch. "1.5 seconds. and you caught it an inch above the ground. There's your answer. She snatched the statue out of Keith's grasp and moved back a foot. "Now when would you have to move?"

 

 

"Alright. I'm standing on this chair, which gives me 5 seconds before it hits the ground. You're across the room, which is about ten feet. How soon do you dive?

"0.001" Keith prepared to jump.

"Correct." Pidge jumped off the chair. "Good job." She set the statue back on Keith's desk and walked towards the door.

"Hey, wait, what about this?" Keith waved the homework.

"I'm not going to hold your hand. I showed you, figure it out." She shut the door behind her. 

Keith stared at his homework. Suddenly, he understood this. it was just like the statue. Different distances and times, but the same basic principle. He could do this.

 

 

"Kogane!"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Who did you cheat off of?"

"What?"

"You heard me! Which person let you copy their answers?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Math abilities don't change overnight! You couldn't've thought of this by yourself, so who did you cheat off of?!"

"Nobody, ma'am. I did them myself."

"Alright, class. Who let Kogane cheat off them? Miss Garza?"

Leah pointed to her C and then to Keith's B. "No, ma'am."

"I didn't cheat. I had help explaining the concept."

"Oh, really."

Keith nodded. He could stop now. He didn't have to keep going. But thinking of Katie, forced to take Algebra when she was on a higher level, kept him talking. "A girl named Katie Holt."

"An eighth grader. You're telling me an eighth grader is smarter than you." Snickers.

"She's probably smarter than everyone in this class." The snickers halted.

"Is that so."

"Yeah, it is. you should definitely look into letting her into a higher class." There. Social suicide committed. And it felt wonderful.

 

 

"Kogane!"

"Hello, Katie. I was actually about to text you. I need help on my- What's wrong?"

Katie had tears streaming from her eyes, and a piece of paper in her hand. She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Keith's waist. "Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"What?"

Katie handed Keith the piece of paper she was holding.

_Dear Miss Holt: It has come to our attention that you possess math skills above your grade level. If you would prefer, you can take a test and skip math levels Algebra-Calculus and various sciences, as well as English, and join older students in engineering and communication. You would be assigned to a flight group and would graduate along with the higher classes. We sincerely hope you will consider this offer and join us at the Garrison._

_Commander Iverson_

"Leah told me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, Leah probably won't be a big thing anymore, now that Katie and Keith are together, but she'll pop up sometimes.


End file.
